Back to School (Shopping)

I don’t know who is more excited for school to start: me or the kids. Sure, we’re excited for very different reasons (they’re excited to wear their new clothes and I’m excited to come home from work to a clean house) but excited nonetheless.

Last year we drove 2.5 hours down to Portland to take advantage of tax-free shopping. We decided to do the same trip this year, but make a whole weekend out of it and stay the night in a hotel. Don’t think too hard about the math here: no tax but hotel+gas+food = suckers.

Regardless, we had fun. The kids love a good road trip. Especially now that our car has headphone jacks for all of them. So they can watch YouTube videos and Huz and I can listen to explicit lyrics Maxwell without being bothered.

Saturday we literally shopped ’til we dropped. We hit up Clackamas Town Centerand went into EVERY STORE IN THE MALL. Literally, you guys. Every. Single. Store.

The good news was that we finished almost our shopping that day, which left all of Sunday for fun stuff. The bad news is my feet. My poor, poor feet. They had just recovered from Disneyland.

The next morning we drove downtown to Voodoo Donuts to see what all the fuss was about.

Verdict: good, but I don’t think it was worth the 1 hour wait in line. And here’s a tip: they ONLY take cash. So make sure to find an ATM before you get in line.

Aidon loved his Maple Bar though. 🙂 We also tried the Bacon Maple Bar, The Donut That Has No Name (had to try it, it was Game of Thrones themed), the Grape Ape, and the Portland Donut.

Next it was on to Pioneer Place to get the last couple of items on our list. The boys still needed pants and I found a Bath & Body Works that was having a Fall Candle Sale. No tax and a discount? Have I mentioned how much I love Portland?

Soon after it was time for lunch and thanks to Yelp we found Noodles & Company. I’m hoping this is the next big chain restaurant to come up to Washington. It’s basically every noodle dish you can think of in one place: Pad Thai, Chicken Noodle Soup, Mac & Cheese, Korean Beef Noodles, etc. I’m thankful we finally got a a Chick-a-Filet, but I mean, c’mon. Korean Beef Noodles? Yes, Lawd!

After lunch we hopped on a MAX Light Rail to get ice cream at Salt and Straw. I’ve always loved the Nob Hill area. It’s a lot of odd little shops, where there’s not much to buy but a lot of stuff to look at.

Doing our best to keep Portland weird…

And Jackson, just being Jackson.

I think we’ll keep this as an annual tradition; we had so much fun shopping and exploring and making new memories. The kids told me one of their favorite parts was riding the light rail.

Shoot, that thing is free, so next time we’ll just ride the loop and save ourselves a ton of money.